That's my sister ( the blonde) She was in the Swinging Six which was formed in the sixties to catch on with the very clean-cut hootenanny "craze" right before things got...interesting. Needless to say, this long form infomercial was probably the high point of the group's career and most probably the only remaining video of the group. It broke up shortly thereafter. It's hard to square my sis, in this "performance" with the gal who ended up performing naked on Broadway just 3 years later! Sadly she is no longer with us but I am sure she'd be laughing her ass off upon seeing this

This looks like something that was screened during the break at a local drive-in theater. By the time you relieved yourself and made it through the line to score your popcorn, you were be-bop'n it back to your ride to the sound of that groovy beat.

It seems too long because I can't imagine anybody watching the whole thing. Starting at about 9:30, is that the first Rap song?

The stodgy old U.S. Post Office tries to be mid-'60s hip with a promo featuring quick cutting in the opening, then a musical group that not only sings quasi-folk style music (with an MOR ballad tossed in) but performs in odd little sketches.
The short ends with a delightfully monotone Postmaster General, who definitely isn't "happening."
Leonard Lyons' column of March 11, 1966 reveals the Swingin' Six had been hired to make this film. They spent part of 1966 touring with Paul Anka and Frank Fontaine. A story in Variety that year said they regularly worked a New York club called "The Scene." Groovy!
Back Stage magazine of Aug. 26, 1966 reveals the group was part of another 15-minuter about the Post Office's Christmas deliveries.
Evidently there was trouble in Swingin SixLand after this was made. Manager Ronn Cummins was advertising for replacements in a story in Variety, Dec. 14, 1966. But they seem so with it!
Lovely 60s cheese from Lee Rothberg Productions.

A extremely efficient use of US tax dollars to inform citizens of the zip code process. What I didn't realize is that the targeted median age of 1960's mail users was age 7. Civil Service Sesame Street..wow.

I suppose this paean to the ingenious five-digit postal innovation deserves SIX swingers!

They really had me on the verge of being entertained.

A 1 or 2 digit zone was bad enough to bother with. Now this?

A sugary sweet performance to get the reluctant lethargic (and still partly illiterate) public to add a 5 digit number to the address. At first the postal service pushed it - threatening to not deliver mail without a zipcode. But they backed off. They had to, It took years for people to adapt to its use. And yes I remember seeing mail with just the city, not the state written on the envelope.

Corny film that illustrates the difference between government and free enterprise. Can you imagine if Jam Handy did a film on this subject? It'd be a class act.

Annoying film.

This is one of my favorite films I've seen here. One of the things that make it fun is missing sections of film interupting the rhyming lyrics! The Postmaster General's bland commentary later interupts the song-and-dance numbers of this fine film to bring more laughter to the viewer. I highly encourage you to watch this!

A cute 1960's film promoting the zip code. Well done for its time. Of course now we have email which alleviates some of the communication problems shown.

At the very end we can see Lawrence O'Brien, U.S. Democratic Party political organizer, government official, and sports executive. He was Postmaster General for the United States between 1965 and 1968, where we can date this film.
His office had been burglarized by Republican campaign workers in 1972, leading to the Watergate scandal. In 1975 he became commissioner of the National Basketball Association, a post he held until 1984. He died in September 1990 at age 73.

I swear one of the guys looks like a really young George W. Bush! The zip code came out in late '63. There is a shot in here of the outside of a post office and a Mustang is parked out front, so the earliest this film could have been released was late '64. Funny it took people that long to get introduced to the zip code. The brunette is cute, but I have to agree the blonde is pretty dingy. A few good songs.

A promo for the zipcode would be alright, except there's musical interludes by the single most awful band in the whole universe, The Swingin' Six (whoever they are). The guys are all right I guess, it's the women singers that get me going.. especially the blonde one. Aieee!! Funny how this promo has full credits..

After watching this film, I guess I finally understand why I need to start including the Zip in my mail.

The USPS spent a lot of money for this one. I'm not sure where it was meant to be shown, as it runs a good 15 minutes. Maybe TV, who knows. It's kind of cute with the Swinging Six. Makes you wonder what happened to them. I'm fairly sure I've seen the brunette girl in an old porn movie, but there's not enough info about her to be sure.

Anyway, I giving it a thumbs up, a period piece, showing what an zip hootenanny was all about.

Ray

A fun little musical production explaining the Zip Code and why you should use it. The song about how America has a ton of Springfields was especially fun.